GB Masters Championships 2023
This was one of the most successful GB championships that Gloucester has had for a number of years.
The small team of just 14 swimmers held their own against the best teams in the country and ranked 7th overall, beating the likes of much larger clubs such as Birmingham and East Anglia.
The main highlights were 2 GB records and a European record by Colin in the freestyle events and a GB record by Simon in the 200 IM. This is an amazing achievement!!
But there was also an abundance of class swims from the whole team. Nia secured 4 golds as well as achieving an 8 second PB in her 400 IM. Adding to this success, Jessica, Matt and Tony also dominated their respective age groups, winning gold or silver in every event swam and Luke added a final silver on Sunday afternoon.
With even more silver and bronze medals from Jayne, Vicki, Sandy and Jo S the individual medal tally continued to grow but it is the relays which really show how strong we are as a club. So as well as their individual events Jo D, Mica and John played key roles in securing us a further 2 gold, 3 silver and a bronze to complete the overall tally.
Congratulations to everyone and a huge thank you to Coach Cooper who’s obviously doing something right!
Sandy
Detailed reports, results and some photos below
Extracts from British Masters Swimming website:
https://www.swimming.org/masters/
All results:
https://results.swimming.org/masters/results/2023/bsmasters/
Gloucester Masters Results:
More photos will be on our website ‘Gallery’ page in due course.
Cupar Trophy
The trophy has an interesting history. It was donated by the Scottish Cupar Amateur Swimming club to mark their centenary and was first competed for in 1988 at the second GB Masters Championships, held in Dundee when Motherwell Masters took home the cup.
In 1989, when the British Champs were hosted in Coventry, it seems that nobody asked for it to be returned!
But some 18 years later, Donald Muirhead – retired convenor of Scottish Masters – discovered the trophy while clearing out old files from his garden shed and it was subsequently handed back to the British Swimming Masters Committee.
The Committee reinstated the Trophy competition for the 2006 Championships and it has been competed for every year since. The Trophy is used to encourage entries to the Champs with points awarded for entering as well as success.
Top 10 clubs 2023
1. Trafford Metro, 479 points
2. City of Sheffield, 222 points
3. Woking, 217 points
4. Spencer, 213 points
5. Otter, 196 points
6. Exeter Masters, 191 points
7. Gloucester Masters, 170 points
8. Birmingham Masters, 152 points
9. Basingstoke, 132 points
=9. East Anglia, 132 points
This has been one of GMSC’s best results. The only previous results we’ve found are:
2015 6th
2018 17th
Day 1 June 2nd (Session 3)
Two records fall in Men’s 200m Freestyle
The Men’s 200m Freestyle event saw another two British records broken.
One by 65-year-old Colin Stephenson and another by 60-year-old Mark Reynolds.
Stephenson swims for Gloucester Masters and narrowly beat the British best. He managed to swim an impressive 2:22:14 with the old time being 2:22:72.
Reynolds on the other hand made sure he had time to spare after beating the old time by more than a second. He swum a 2:13:22 compared to the old British record of a 2:14:69
Day 2 June 3rd (Session 4)
4×50 Medley Relay Men 200+ Years
(Previous record 2:00.56)
1. Basingstoke, 1:55.42
2. Woking, 1:57.67
3. Gloucester Masters, 1:59.29 (Matt Bailey, Simon Wintle, Luke Pearson, Colin Stephenson)
Day 3 June 4th (Session 7)
Individual Medley record breakers
Four British records were set in the Men’s 200m Individual Medley.
The times were set by Simon Wintle, Mark Reynolds, Simon Veale and Steve Grossman.
Gloucester Masters’ Wintle swum quickest of the four, finishing in 2:29.48.
His time gave him the new record in the 55-59 Years event as he knocked more than two seconds off the previous best effort.
Reynolds was around half a second slower despite swimming in the age group above.
The Barnet swimmer set a 2:30.09 which was 0.80 faster than the old best time.
Veale became the first swimmer from the 65-69 Years age range to go under the 2:50.00 mark in the event. He finished in 2:49.99 to better the old best time of 2:50.98.
It was Grossman’s fourth individual British record of the meet after he continued his successful weekend. He set a 200m Individual Medley national best of 2:55.48 that knocked just 0.76 off the previous record in the 70-74 Years category.
Two European Freestyle records
Colin Stephenson rocketed to victory in the Men’s 65-69 age group of the 100m Freestyle.
The Gloucester Master touched the wall in a time of 1:02.72 and collected European and British records in the process. Trafford Metro’s Neville Barton finished in second place, nearly nine seconds adrift of the victor.
In the women’s event in the same age group and distance, Bishop Stortford’s Alyson Fordham also tasted European and British record success.
Her time of 1:09.16 in the 65-69 age group put her ahead of Lindsey Gowland from B C & P Masters in second and third-placed Jayne Stephenson of Gloucester Masters.
Sandy Jones, Jo Seymour, Vicki Payne, Jo Duberley
